Haley Stevens faces backlash over Rogers endorsement; Florida pilot’s final mayday

A Democrat endorses a Republican in one of the country's closest Senate races. Now her own party is turning on her just hours before the midterms. Plus, President Trump spends the final weekend campaigning and states he easily won. Why Republicans are fighting to hold onto them now. And nine people are dead after a private jet plunges into a Florida roadway. Hear the pilot's desperate final call. The stories that matter. The facts you can trust. From across the country to around the world, this is Unbiased Updates from Straight Arrow. Hey everybody, I'm Christian Bryant. It's Monday, November 2nd, the eve of the midterms. Let's get you caught up and ready for the day ahead on this extended edition of Unbiased Updates. We begin with the stunning political reversal in Michigan just a day before the election. Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens is breaking with her own party to endorse Republican Mike Rogers for Senate. And she's not just endorsing him, she spent Sunday campaigning He's standing alongside him. The two appeared together at a Detroit church where Stephens had originally been expected to join Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed for a show of party unity. Stephens narrowly lost to El-Sayed in the August primary. Their relationship has been strained ever since, particularly over Israel. Last week, Stephens demanded El-Sayed condemn an outside group's ad linking U.S. military aid to Israel with higher grocery prices. She called the ad anti-Semitic. El-Sayed said he disagreed with the ad and had nothing to do with making it. His campaign then asked Stevens to stay away from its events, and Stevens posted this video. Abdul said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away. And he's right. And that's why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today. I don't belong in Abdul's campaign. And Stevens faced some tough questions about that decision last night on CNN. Anderson Cooper pressed her on why she's now supporting the same Republican she warned voters against just three months ago. Back in August, you posted on social media, quote, Mike Rogers will be another rubber stamp for Donald Trump's dangerous agenda. We can't afford to give MAGA another Senate seat in November. How do you why is it OK now? Why can you afford now to give MAGA another Senate seat in November? Well, why is it OK to have the Democratic Party and a top nominee, you know, ejecting, you know, this type of or injecting rather this type of anger and lack of kindness? That's all. I'm one Democrat. OK, so it's the anger and lack of kindness. That's what you're focusing on. And there's others who feel the same way. The backlash from our own party has been swift. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called it a quote, despicable betrayal and says Democrats remain united behind El Sayed. DNC Chair Ken Martin calls it a betrayal of the party's values and a last-minute political stunt. El-Sayed, for his part, is trying to keep the focus on voters rather than his former primary rival. Reporters ask him about Stephens' decision Sunday. At the end of the day, I actually don't think about Haley Stephens. See what I'm saying? Like, I think about the, like I said, the 9,999,998 people who are not those two. I'm just less interested in the politics of it all than I am in the policy of it all. President Trump is celebrating the move, praising Stevens for backing his party's candidate. After her endorsement, Stevens' longtime chief of staff resigned, along with several other staffers. As we mentioned, Trump is weighing in on that Michigan Senate race too. Even while campaigning in Iowa Sunday, the president took aim at Democrat Abdul El-Sayed with some remarks about his Muslim faith. Trump was in Iowa and Kansas over the weekend trying to boost Republicans in two states he won comfortably in 2024, but where the GOP now faces competitive Senate races. And in Iowa, he kept coming back to Michigan. That's another important election for us. We don't want to have a Jihadists, we don't want to have them. Can you imagine? We'll have to put him through metal detectors in order to see. We'll have 100 senators, and most of them you can go direct. We're going to have to get a special metal detector for Abdul. A party that hates America cannot be allowed to lead the people who built America. Trump then headed to Kansas for his final rally of the weekend, urging supporters to turn out Tuesday to keep Republicans in control of Congress. Both rallies had actually been canceled last week in favor of campaign events by phone before being put back on the schedule Friday. The president has now held more than two dozen rallies across 19 states since the start of October, and he's not finished just yet. Trump is expected to deliver his final midterm campaign pitch today at 2 p.m. at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington. Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan says he'll accept the results of his race against Democrat Mary Peltola tomorrow, even if he loses. But he's still accusing Democrats of trying to steal the election. Sullivan made the comment Sunday on CNN as a controversy over another candidate with his same name continues to grow. When asked if he'd accept the results if only he wins, here's what he told Jake Tapper. No, I'm going to accept the election results. It is a breathtaking smoking gun. that Peltola, her team, Schumer, his team had as their first order of business. So what I say to Alaskans is don't let them get away with the tricks. Get out the vote. Vote for the honest senator. We have truth on our side, Jake. We have truth on our side and that's why I'm going to win. As you'll recall, there are two Dan Sullivans running for Senate in Alaska. One is the incumbent Republican. The other is a retired teacher named Dan J. Sullivan. And Republicans say the second Sullivan is on the ballot to confuse voters and take votes away from the senator. The New York Times reported last week that former aides to Peltola and Democratic Senate operatives were involved in recruiting him. Peltola denies knowing about the effort. Her campaign also denies any involvement. And over the weekend, a federal judge threw out the Trump administration's lawsuit over the ballot controversy. The Justice Department wanted votes for the second Sullivan set aside for investigation and sought to block certification of the election if the Republican senator loses. But Judge Sharon Gleason ruled Sunday that the government's request would violate voters' right to a secret ballot. The Justice Department has already appealed. Peltola's campaign calls the lawsuit baseless, saying it won't stop Alaskans from choosing their next senator. Both Sullivans remain on tomorrow's ballot, and Alaska's ranked-choice system If you think two Dan Sullivans on the same ballot is strange, well, Alaska isn't the only place we've seen some unusual politics this election cycle. I caught up with our senior politics reporter Ozzie Pavera outside the Capitol over the weekend to talk about some of the wilder stories we've seen and what he's watching as we head into Election Day. Over the last few weeks we've talked a bunch about some of the biggest storylines during this midterm cycle and what a long midterm cycle it has been. And some of the craziest storylines, we're currently seeing one play out right now in Alaska with Mary Peltola's campaign being accused of coordinating to have the teacher Dan Sullivan run against the incumbent But Dan Sullivan, my question to you is, what has been... One of the crazier storylines that we've seen this midterm cycle. I mean, in a midterm cycle where you have two Dan Sullivans running for Senate on the Republican line in Alaska, you have an Ohio Republican candidate running an ad featuring featuring these estranged mom of his Democratic opponent who who that. Candidate hasn't spoken to her mom in five decades and for very good reason. There's a very tragic case of abuse in the background. But you have all sorts of cases of people tweaking their websites to either hide the fact that they were supportive of Donald Trump or erase prior statements about climate change and health equity and women's... Uh, health issues. To be fair, at least one of those people said, you know, that was, I erased it because it was from an old campaign. Yes. You know, some people are updating 2024 campaigns for 2026 and others on the Republican side are erasing things they said only a few weeks or months ago about Donald Trump because he is so unpopular compared to other presidents at this period. The other thing that is quietly but very loudly becoming a more central issue... It's just whether or not people are going to accept the election results. President Donald Trump, very famously, very publicly, has challenged election results that he does not like. He has never accepted his loss in 2020. And increasingly, he has staffed his administration with people who are walking that same line. The question is, how many people who have his endorsement, who have said they're aligned with him, ...are, on election night, going to accept the results. Now, what's happening in Alaska is fodder for challenging those results. The Department of Justice already has a... They had a lawsuit even before that New York Times story exposed the Democratic plot to have that second candidate. Because this goes back to earlier in the year, right? This has been going on for months. And as unethical and immoral as it might be, there might not actually be a violation of law. They're also challenging voter registration in California on some very shoddy work that has been debunked numerous times. And it's all laying the groundwork for the president to come out on election night before any results are finalized or generally accepted and to declare what he wants. It's almost like you're saying that even though there have been these really unique storylines throughout the midterm cycle. We could be seeing one of the most consequential storylines play out after election night. Absolutely. Election night is the start or actually the sort of middle of the election storyline. The campaigns have had months, in some cases years, of telling their story. Voters for the last couple of weeks have been casting their ballots, early votes in person, early votes by mail. And on election night, that's when you see the score. And some of those scores don't get tabulated for a couple of days because it takes a while to process some of these absentee ballots and votes that come in by mail. But what the president and some Republicans are doing is initiating the what appears to be a challenge in advance of results. Now, the other thing that is an emerging storyline that is unlike anything we've ever seen is the money. Hmm. Talk about it. Elon Musk is the single largest known contributor to candidates and campaign committees this cycle. If you really want to be infuriated, think about your number one issue. The number one issue that you as a voter think is the most important. To a lot of voters, the economy, cost of living, affordability. Is it cost of living at the pump? Is it the road in front of your house having potholes that are not filled? Is it your child's school not having updated textbooks or a crumbling roof? Any one of those issues. How do you calculate how much it would cost to fix it? And compare that to the amount of money that goes in to arguing who is the right person to fix it. If people like Elon Musk and other billionaires took a portion of their money And dedicated it to solving the issues rather than electing the people that they prefer to solve those issues. You potentially could see more dramatic movement. All right, many thanks to Ozzie for that. Now to Florida, where nine people are dead after a private jet plunged from the sky and crashed in Palm Beach County Sunday afternoon. And investigators are now trying to determine what went wrong. The moment the Bombardier Learjet 60 crashed was captured on dashcam video. You can see it plummeting nose-first toward the ground before exploding into a massive fireball, sending thick black smoke into the air. The impact left a large crater in the road just feet from a nearby neighborhood. All nine people on board were killed. The jet was headed from Austin, Texas to the Bahamas when it crashed just before 1 p.m. Sunday. The identities of those on board have not yet been released. Air traffic control recordings reveal the pilot reported icing and moderate turbulence, then requested to climb to 37,000 feet. Moments later, the plane was in a rapid descent. We want to warn you, the pilot's final distress calls are difficult to hear. 722 Bravo Delta, we're descending 8,000. Mayday, mayday, we're descending 10,000 feet per minute. November 722 Bravo Delta, roger. Declared emergency, 722 Bravo Delta. We are in an over-speed condition, descending 20... We're going to crash into the ground, 722 Bravo Delta. 722 Bravo Delta, I'm here with you, talk to me. We are descending 22,000 feet, and we are banking 60... The NTSB has sent a team of investigators to Florida to determine what caused the crash. The agency is expected to hold a news conference with an update sometime today. Later today, the Idaho Supreme Court takes up the case of convicted killer Lori Vallow Daybell. She's serving three life sentences for the murders of her two children and conspiring to kill her husband's former wife. Now, she wants those convictions thrown out. Her attorney argues she was denied a speedy trial and the right to keep her chosen lawyer. The appeal also challenges the judge's decision to allow testimony about two shootings in Arizona. The case made national headlines after her children, 7-year-old JJ and 16-year-old Tylee, disappeared in 2019. Vallow Daybell became known as the Doomsday Mom for her extreme religious beliefs, including claims that her children were possessed by evil spirits. Their bodies were later found buried on property belonging to Chad Daybell. He and Lori married just weeks after his previous wife, Tammy, died. Chad was also convicted into three killings and sentenced to death. Lori Vallow Daybell also has two life sentences from separate convictions in Arizona. Today's hearing focuses on her Idaho convictions. Finally this morning, the winners of the New York City Marathon have been crowned, and this race was one for the books. Nearly 60,000 runners took part in this year's race, setting a new participation record. On the women's side, Kenya's Sheila Chipkiri, who won in 2024, reclaimed her title. She finished the 26.2-mile race in just over 2 hours and 24 For the men, Sweden's Andreas Almgren won his marathon debut, becoming the first Swede ever to win the New York City Marathon. He finished in two hours, six minutes and one second. American runners also had a strong showing. Jessica McLean finished second in the women's race, becoming the first American woman to reach the podium in eight years. And Zohar Talby finished sixth in the men's race, posting the fastest time ever by an American on the New York City course. Speaking of fast, we are the fastest way to get the facts. Watch us anytime at san.com or our app, or join our audience on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're glad to be a part of your morning routine. Folks, that's Unbiased Updates for this Monday. For the Unbiased Updates team and all of us at Straight Arrow, I'm Christian Bryant. Thank you so much for watching and for joining us. Have a good one, and we'll see you back here tomorrow.